Have you ever tried to silence your conscience?

We all have.

And it's tempting to do it because we live in a world that hands out earplugs so we can silence the quiet whisper of God.

Well, today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindall concludes a message

he calls straight talk about moral purity. In this study of First Thessalonians, we'll be reminded

that every day presents a choice. Should we speed past the obvious warning signs? Or when danger

appears, should we hit the brakes and proceed with caution?

It's a choice between life and death.

When I see in First Thessalonians Chapter 4 straight talk about moral purity, I am grateful that God talks that way about it.

I'm grateful he doesn't stutter.

I'm even more grateful that he doesn't laugh.

He tells me straight what to do about it, and he leaves me with a choice because actually if you boil

holiness down to its basic sense, you come to obedience, don't you?

As the 19th century Scottish theologian John Brown said, holiness does not consist in mystic speculations, enthusiastic fervors, or

uncommanded austerities. It consists in thinking as God thinks and willing as God wills.

That's what the apostle is asking of the reader in chapter four of First Thessalonians.

He got his foot in the door by that last part of chapter three when he gave us some guidelines on how to really live.

Remember that last time? Remember those comments he gave us and it just thrilled us, especially as he

got to the end and he said, verse 13, that God may establish your hearts

unblameable in holiness. What a great way to live. Unblamable in holiness. Confidence is being

unblamable. So Paul knew the Thessalonians lived in a city that had its temptations.

And so he said, finally, brethren, we request and we exhort you in the Lord Jesus

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